After watching this episode now I'm getting the urge to write a full review even though I've already mentioned some highlighting moments.
An in depth acceptance story rich with culture which brought out Sam's belief of equality among man. The way he embraced Machiko was both adorable and playful. The chemistry between that actress and Scott was very believable. What I loved the most however was when his voice over told us while she was picking flowers that he while he wanted her to be accepted preferably it would be without having to change her. An excellent response to the fact that they were on their way buy her an American dress.
The Lenore character makes me think of Edgar Allan's Poem
The Raven and not just because of the name itself.
vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore –
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore –
Nameless here for evermore.
The family had lost a daughter, a suggestively pregnant teen to suicide who'd apparently been frowned at for her choice(s).
Nameless here for evermore.
In a way Machiko could be seen as the raven.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee – by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite – respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
'Nepenthe' is apparently a mythological drug said cause one to forget their grief. The speaker in the poem seems to believe the raven which appeared at his door is a messenger sent to deliver this drug to him and clearly takes it as an insult.
In this case Lenore feels Machiko is a curse come to claim her remaining child and that she was being asked to replace her daughter.
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."
Or one can see Sam as the raven.
There is mythology which says that "when someone dies, a crow (which are the cousin of the raven) carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can’t rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right."
The soul being a lost child and Lenore representing the great saddness which her daughter's death left behind and Machiko's appearance then brought and aggravated.
Machiko fits as well as being another daughter Lenore was being forced to welcome into her life.
That end scene where Sam pleaded with her to show Machkio support in the hospital could be seen as Machiko or Sam presenting Lenore with a way to make up for where she'd failed her daughter.
Recently I watched an awesome film with my friends using this concept of the crow and it got me thinking of a way to use it for a
Quantum Leap fanfiction.
In Japan which is even more ironic to this episode there is lore of a three legged crow, otherwise known as Yatagarasu which aided an emperor. It's appearance is believed to be a will of heaven or a divine intervention in human affairs.
Moving on, there was an interesting concept here when we as in several episodes receive a hint that Lenore can detect Sam within the aura. She tells her husband that he's different beyond his service over seas, that there was something different in his eyes. She immediately places the blame on Machicko for obvious reasons but you can tell from her tone that she on some level knows her son is not there.
This is an intriguing concept, a few other episodes in which we see something like this are:
Season 2's
Catch a Falling Star, John O'Malley seemed to have gotten a glimpse of Sam right before allowing 'Ray' his big debut. (though Drunkenness is the obviously source there)
Season 2's
Freedom: The Leapee's grandfather constantly speaks seemingly more to Sam than his grandson (The handprints on the horse and the conversation about "leaping" from one skin to the next).
Season 2's
Leaping In Without a Net: A carnival psychic is able to see in his eyes what she refers to as his reincarnated identities.
Season 4's
Hurricane: The Leapee's girlfriend states at one point that she thought his eyes were a different color for a brief moment.
Just to name a few.
What could the key be? In some cases such as here it a certain closeness to the leapee seems to be able to scratch just below the surface of the aura but as in
Leaping In Without a Net and other instances like
Temptation Eyes A divine insight is also a factor.
Lets look at the Naomi character, lord is this woman irritating, probably the most shallow, clingy and self absorbed character or at least female character ever presented in the series. Al makes a comment in the beginning that she'd fit in perfectly in Vegas and I believe he hit the nail on the head. She's exactly the vegas stripper type. Granted she had a close history with Charlie so sure it would sting, she was completely disrespectful and what she did to Machiko was the flit of the butterflies wings which started the typhoon of events which followed it. I can't believe the b**** got away with it too!
It's elements like the fact that Charlie had originally given up on Machiko and ended up with Naomi that suggests to me that he may have been a pushover and a bit of a mama's boy.
Though I've discussed it before I want to take another look at the ending moment when Al makes a comment suggesting to the viewer for the first time that Sam is married. What exactly happened there is unclear but I once had a conversation here with someone who thought it might have been intentional. I've been thinking about that I am starting to support it as head canon. It's possible that Al might have wanted to test Sam's reaction without:
a.) Directly breaking his promise to Donna
b.) Adding in the element of anger in Sam for not telling him sooner that a direct approach would have gotten.
this way it was more natural.
So why would he then back off so quickly? Well perhaps the expression and tone that had been delivered with Sam's comeback line was enough for him and/or he didn't feel right about this little test.
Though granted Al is human so of course he could have just had a slip as is the initial suggestion it makes. If he'd really wanted to purposefully throw Donna into a conversation the perfect moment would have been when Sam was telling Al that he couldn't tell Beth to wait for him, one reason being that it broke the Quantum Leap rules. Honestly I would have liked to see that conversation take that direction, Al was amazing not to even scratch the surface there but I digress.
There was also mention in the discussion I had with the other user to if this was written with the premeditation of
The Leap Back. The 'Just kidding' part paired with the expression Al gets right after making that recovery does support this as it directly connects to the reveal that Donna had asked Al not to remind Sam of her. So it is possible even though TLB was regretted after it aired.
Another interesting element here is that a language gets added to the list if several languages Sam is supposed to know.
From this episode we find out that he knows Japanese. The others?
Season 1:
Star Crossed and Season 5:
The Curse of Phta-Hotep - Hieroglyphics
Season 2:
Goodnight Dear Heart - German
Season 2:
Sea Bride - French
Season 2:
All Americans and Season 4:
It's a Wonderful Leap- Spanish
Unfortunately this isn't all 7 languages and 4 dead ones. Shame not all were revealed.
But we do know from three particular episodes that Sign Language, Hebrew and Italian are not among them haha. He definitely should have learned Italian! XD
He also speaks fluent Russian in LHO but since Oswald was in heavy control a lot of the time it's unclear if that was actually Sam's knowledge.
5/5 stars, a brilliant episode.
'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe source:
http://www.shmoop.com/the-raven/poem-text.html
Ravens and Crows in Mythology:
http://www.perspectivesmagazine.sk/news/ravens-and-crows-in-mythology-folklore-and-religion/
Yatagarasu - the three legged raven:
http://www.avesnoir.com/yata-garasu-the-ravens-of-japanese-myth/
